January 31–February 2, 2020

The Rage to Live: Queer Film Legacies and the Work of David Wojnarowicz and Marlon Riggs

Presented by The Cinematheque, the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, and Griffin Art Projects

The Cinematheque joins with the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery and Griffin Art Projects in presenting The Rage to Live: Queer Film Legacies and the Work of David Wojnarowicz and Marlon Riggs,” a film and lecture series organized in conjunction with two current art exhibitions. 

The Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery exhibition David Wojnarowicz: Photography & Film 1978–1992 is the first to concentrate solely on the artist’s photographic and filmic work, and presents over 100 photographs, test prints, silkscreens, 16mm and Super 8 films, and collaborative videos. Wojnarowicz (1954–1992) came into prominence in the New York art world of the 1980s, actively embracing all media and forging an expansive range of work both fiercely political and highly personal. He had already gained national repute by the time he was diagnosed with HIV in 1988. His body of work was as conceptually rigorous as it was stylistically diverse, resolutely and fervently political at a time when the AIDS epidemic was cutting down a generation of artists due in large part to government inaction. 

The Griffin Art Projects exhibition The Sodomite Invasion: Experimentation, Politics and Sexuality in the work of Jimmy DeSana and Marlon T. Riggs is a double solo show pairing the work of two American artists: the fine art photographer Jimmy DeSana (1949–1990), a radical spirit and highly influential voice in the field of photography based in NYC, and the experimental filmmaker and documentarist Marlon Riggs (1957–1994), a vocal activist in the fight against HIV/AIDS, whose filmic work primarily explores race relations and sexuality. Both died of AIDS-related illness. Riggs’s oeuvre screens as part of the film program at The Cinematheque. 

The Rage to Live: Queer Film Legacies and the Work of David Wojnarowicz and Marlon Riggs” is dedicated to the context of AIDS and activism and the enduring legacy of this historically and culturally important moment in art and film. 

Events
Acknowledgments

Header image courtesy of Signifyin' Works and Frameline Distribution

List of Programmed Films

Date Film Title Director(s) Year Country
2020-Jan Black Is… Black Ain’t Marlon Riggs 1995 USA
2020-Jan Self-Portrait in 23 Rounds Marion Scemama 2018 France
2020-Feb Ethnic Notions + Affirmations Marlon Riggs
2020-Feb Color Adjustment Marlon Riggs 1991 USA
2020-Feb Tongues Untied Marlon Riggs
2020-Feb ITSOFOMO (In the Shadow of Forward Motion)
2020-Feb How to Survive a Plague David France 2012 USA
2020-Feb BPM (Beats Per Minute) Robin Campillo 2017 France
Note

Organized in conjunction with:

David Wojnarowicz: Photography & Film 1978–1992
Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, UBC
January 10 – April 5, 2020
belkin.ubc.ca

The Sodomite Invasion: Experimentation, Politics and Sexuality in the work of Jimmy DeSana and Marlon T. Riggs
Griffin Art Projects, North Vancouver
January 25 – April 25, 2020
griffinartprojects.ca

Preview Events at the Galleries:

Thursday, January 9
Opening Reception at Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery
David Wojnarowicz: Photography & Film 1978–1992

Thursday, January 30
Opening Reception & Curator Tour at Griffin Art Projects
The Sodomite Invasion: Experimentation, Politics and Sexuality in the work of Jimmy DeSana and Marlon T. Riggs

Keynote talks and panel events in this program are free admission. Regular ticket prices in effect for film screenings.

Program notes for Marlon Riggs films are by Lorenzo Fusi, curator of The Sodomite Invasion: Experimentation, Politics and Sexuality in the work of Jimmy DeSana and Marlon T. Riggs